


If that's what it takes

by crownheartsteacup



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 03:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownheartsteacup/pseuds/crownheartsteacup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Relationships take work. Or at least the good ones, the ones that mean something, do. They both have little habits and quirks that take getting used to.  Nick knows that. Louis knows that. And they are both doing their best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If that's what it takes

**Author's Note:**

> I completely blame this on a [instagram picture](http://instagram.com/p/WH_8JTPJ3D/) Nick uploaded back in feburary. I know, it's a sad excuse but the mental images just didn't go away and I had to add a little more headcanon to it and this happened.

Relationships take work. Or at least the good ones, the ones that mean something, do. It’s all about compromising while not giving up too much of yourself and maybe a little (or a lot) about learning to love the quirks of another person. There will always be things that drive you mad, but as long as they are outweighed by the good stuff, there’s a chance. Nick knows that. Louis knows that. And they are both doing their best.

They both have their habits that took time getting used to. Nick, for example, has a few quirks that kind of confused Louis at first, but that he loves by now. Nick does yoga from time to time and he usually does it in the middle of the living room. The first time Louis walked into the flat and was faced with Nick more or less upside down, bum in snug fitting yoga pants and stretched into the air, made him choke on his Frappuccino. Grimmy had just given him an upside-down grin and fucking winked at him before he twisted himself a little more.  
By now Louis knows exactly when to come over to the flat to find Nick doing Supta Konasana or Halasana, usually with his arse facing the door. Because while it took time getting used to, Louis actually thinks it’s pretty hot his boyfriend is so bendy, so he’s more than fine with it nowadays.

Oh and there’s another one. Nick does nothing without a soundtrack. Pretty much everything has its own playlist in Nick’s life, and in the beginning, Louis had been amazed that Nick actually was able to use the bathroom without music or could go to sleep without some tunes playing.  
But he has a playlist for everything else. While it was annoying at first and took some time to get used to, because Louis actually appreciates silence from time to time, the “housework” one is Louis’ favourite by now. Because unlike most of the others, it’s not “hipster music” like he loves to call most of Nick’s stuff (even though it isn’t really that hipster most of the time but they both know Louis complains about it for fun, not because he means it. He likes Nick’s taste in music). It’s danceable music, everything from oldies to the latest hits. Because that’s the point of the playlist. Nick doesn’t do his housework like a normal person. He dances while he does it. Louis vividly (and quite fondly) remembers Nick swaying his hips, spinning and twirling and doing little dance-steps while vacuuming the floor to “Footloose”, no doubt imagining himself doing all of Kevin Bacon’s dance moves. He actually chucked off and threw his shirt at one point, just like in the video.  
By now, Louis sometimes even steps in to help and dances along. At least that’s the explanation they gave Harry when he found them dancing in the kitchen, Louis holding a cloth, bend over and wiping down the counters while Grimmy held onto his hips from behind and they swayed, grinded and all but humped to “Do you love me” from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. But they don’t ever talk about that.  
(And yes, there’s a “Louis”-playlist containing a weird collection of songs from “Eternal flame” to “You shook me all night long”, but they don’t talk about that one either.)

So yes, Nick takes some getting used to, he’s fully aware of that. But Louis does, too. And it’s not even something like the fact that Louis likes to sleep all starfished out, on his stomach, stretched over the bed. Nick is fine with that, because he’ll just snuggle up to Louis, place his head on his back and they both have big enough beds anyway. That one never was an issue.

In the beginning, they had quite a few problems because Louis is a little messy. He keeps leaving stuff all over Nick’s flat. And while the older one hated it in the beginning because he’s not Louis Tomlinson’s maid, he’s not anyone’s maid, he kind of loves it by now. Not only because Louis joins him when he’s cleaning everything up again, but because he secretly likes finding Louis’ stuff mingled between his own when his boyfriend is out and about, busy being a popstar. They can’t exactly share clothes, or at least Nick can’t wear Louis’s stuff, so finding a scarf or a pair of sunglasses between his own that isn’t his is always a nice surprise.

And then there’s this thing Louis does that drives Nick really batshit insane. Or at least it did at first, before he knew what it means and what to do about it. Louis fiddles. A lot. His fingers are in constant movement and Nick still remembers how irritated he always got when Louis kept playing with the strings of his hoodie or randomly started moving a pencil lying around back and forth between his fingers. He snapped at Louis more than once for doing it, but by now he just reaches out and links their fingers together steadily, which makes Louis stop and calm down. Because Nick knows by now that fiddling just means that Louis is thinking about something, mulling things over in his head, not able to find a solution and Nick’s touch usually suffices to pull him out of it, makes him concentrate on the here and now. Nick sometimes catches him doing it when he watches videos of the band, Louis’ hands flitting around, playing with the hem of his (or on of the other boys’) t-shirt, but at least at home it turned down to a minimum because being around Nick centres him.

 

And the thing is, they both know exactly which quirks the other loves the most. Which is why Nick spends the evening of the boys’ last concert before a week-long break doing hours of yoga and cleaning the flat extensively, hoping it makes Louis come home to London faster somehow. It’s ridiculous, because he knows they won’t be home until the middle of the night earliest or, more likely, will be back the next morning. The thing is, Louis didn’t text him when he’ll back and Harry doesn’t answer to his texts either, so Nick doesn’t know which it is. Both of them are probably busy being in a boyband or whatever. So maybe his yoga- or cleaning-magic will help.  
When the whole flat is clean and there’s still no sign of Louis, he grumpily admits defeat and heads to bed after one last text. Because the next day a weekday which means he has a show in the morning, so he should get at least a little bit of sleep.

Nick’s mood doesn’t exactly improve when he wakes up still alone in bed without a warm clingy Louis next to him. There are four texts waiting for him, two from Harry and two from Louis, the latter telling him in the first that he’s missing him and will be home soon (Nick checks the timestamp, it’s from about 5 minutes after he went to bed) and the second one complaining about their bus only leaving just now (the timestamp says two hours ago, so it’s safe to assume he’ll have to leave for work without seeing Louis first). Nick knows he’s pretty much scowling by the time he opens Harry’s messages, eyes automatically skipping past the actual message to look at the picture Harry send him instead. It’s a picture of Louis, pouting down at his phone. Judging by the surrounding, it was taken on the bus and Louis seems to be sitting in what is apparently his bunk. Nick can see his glasses next to a crumpled pillow and what appears to be the arm of a sweater sticking out from under the blankets next to Louis’ boxers-clad bum. Nick takes a moment to take it all in before he moves on to reading the texts Harry send along with the picture. The first one only tells him about the concert and something Niall said on stage and the second one actually belongs with the picture. ‘What did you do? Lou’s pouting. GRIMSHAW. Make him stop.’  
That actually makes Nick smile. He knows Louis doesn’t like to sleep on the bus because there’s not nearly enough space to sprawl out and the bunk makes him a little claustrophobic from time to time. It’s why he prefers actual beds, especially Nick’s, which is big and outrageously comfortable.  
The timestamp tells him the message only 20 minutes old, so he texts Harry back that he’ll take care of it, before he responds to Louis’ texts.

‘just got up, gotta leave for the studio soon, though. haz says you’re still awake? sleep a little, love, and i’ll see you right after the show, yea? my place?’ He adds three emoticons, a crown, a heart and a teacup, knowing that Louis will get their meaning.

He doesn’t get an answer back, not the whole time through his breakfast show and Finchy, Ian and the girls can tell he’s off his game, but he somehow manages to go through with it anyway before they send him home afterwards. He’s been fiddling with his phone at every chance he got (not very often) and while Harry texts him back when they finally arrive in London, telling him that he’ll be over sometime during the day, most likely in the evening, to say Hi (so there better be food, grimmy!), there’s nothing from Louis. And somehow that makes him worry. He knows Louis can get upset about the most ridiculous things, so he just hopes his late text back didn’t anger him somehow. They only have a few days before the boys have to leave again and then they’ll be off again and he has to work a lot in the meantime, so he’d rather not spend the little time they have arguing with Louis.

When he unlocks his door, he nearly falls over Louis’s shoes in the hallway and lets out a relieved sigh. Louis being in his flat is a good sign. It’s oddly silent though. “Louis? Love, I’m home!”, he calls out but doesn’t get an answer.

After putting Louis’ shoes aside and setting his own next to them, then taking off his jacket, he finally sets off into the flat in search of his little popstar boyfriend. Living room and kitchen are empty, but there’s a used mug next to the sink which he didn’t leave there this morning.  
So that leaves only one thing: The bedroom. Carefully he pushes open the door and can’t help but smile at the sight in front of him: Louis, wearing one of Nick’s shirts judging by the size, stretched out on his stomach, his face pressed into Nick’s pillow and snoring softly. He’s on top of the duvet, his phone is in his hand and by the looks of it, Louis simply fell asleep while texting.  
Still smiling, Nick very silently slips out of his clothes except for his underwear and carefully moves onto the bed as well. He stretches out besides the younger man before reaching out to pluck his phone out of his lax grip and puts it aside, grinning a little more. Then he takes a deep breath and propels his body forward, just tackles Louis in a hug, pressing kisses to his shoulder and neck, nuzzling his nape while crawling on top of him, touching every bit of him he can reach, clutching the tiny warm body to him. He can tell the exact second Louis finally wakes up and realizes what’s going on by the way Louis’ breath hitches and he squirms to turn around.

Grinning wildly, Nick stops his ambush for a moment and leaves Louis enough space to turn around, leaning in for a soft kiss to his lips as soon as they are in reach. “Hi babe. Welcome home.”

He can feel Louis’ answering smile against his lips, feels the smaller one’s arms and legs wrapping around him and when he opens his eyes again, Louis is smiling up at him. “Welcome home indeed.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love some feedback since english isn't my first language. Let me know if I got something wrong or just if you enjoyed it, anything.


End file.
